We're often told that there is no money to spend on jumpstarting the green economy. These days when you turn on the radio, go online or watch the nightly news the word that is singed into our collective psyche is austerity. Our elected officials try to tell us that we have to cut spending on vital programs which would put hundreds of thousands of people into hardship. They tell us that we must reduce the deficit at all costs even if it means that we balance it on the backs of people. The same goes for our national debt and the push to have it paid down at all costs.

Does your school provide nutritious, well-balanced meals for its students? Or, does your school promote fitness initiatives or allocate outdoor time for students during the school day? Maybe your school is reducing its footprint through energy efficiency measures, solar panel installations or geothermal efforts? Well, if you answered “Yes!” to any or all of these questions, YOUR school has the chance to receive a prestigious, national award from the U.S. Department of Education for its sustainability efforts.

Every time we open a newspaper or turn on the television, we hear about the damage that we are causing our planet, and it is easy to start to feel like no matter how hard we try, we cannot combat the destruction of our lifestyles. So, whenever there is good news, it needs to be spread like wildfire, to encourage those who have been tirelessly working towards a better future and inspire those on the cusp of change.

The Conversations with the Earth: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change exhibit at the National American Indian Museum was designed to draw upon the common man’s sense of solidarity with the rest of humanity. Each picture, quote, anecdote, and video was meant to impress the disastrous impact global warming has already had on Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous People have extensive knowledge of nature from cultural traditions, and suffer the effects of climate change yet their carbon footprint is minuscule.

Wandering around on Wall Street and other protest sites these past few days, you have a sense that we live in a country filled with people in search of a movement. Organic, powerful, urgent, spontaneous, cathartic, honest and fun are words protesters use to describe the nascent movement and their experience in it. Donald Trump may have inadvertently added to that vocabulary and helped send thousands more to the event by commenting on Fox News yesterday that it

I never expected to work with the winning team of the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon for my first summer internship. The Solar Decathlon is a competition to design and build innovative, carbon neutral, and affordable homes. This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Solar Decathlon, which was first held in 2002. Once completed, the houses are taken apart and transported to Washington, D.C.

Intuitively, we all know that children learn best in a healthy environment, but sometimes it can be difficult to measure exactly what a healthy environment looks like. Here at Earth Day Network, we constantly strive to make the vision of green schools as clear and straightforward as possible. Recently a study has bee published that makes our task a bit easier.